I know phone sellers have been saying it forever; but, I still don't like the use of 'Subsidized' in the title. You don't have to pay full-price now, because it's magically 'subsidized' Microsoft will kindly allow you to pay more later.

Wait, so $15 a month attached to the $100 starting price for two years, so you're looking at $460 for two years? I'd hope those are reasonably compelling services, considering if you bought the Kinect bundle console for $300 and regular Xbox Live for two years, that'd still only be $420 to that $460. Guess it would fall on HDD size at that point though, as the 250GB HDD w/ Kinect is $400. It seems like the "premium video services" would be the same one any Xbox Gold members have access too.

The deal doesn't seem like it'd be awful, but just a bit off. I guess I get where they're coming from with this idea, with it being a bit easier to deal with a $100 up front cost rather than $300, but I'd be interested to know if this is something people would actually want over just getting it the normal way.

It's not as shady as phone subscriptions - it's got gold built in. It's lower interest than a loan would be, so I don't see what the problem is. If you can't afford money up front, but can earn enough, it could be the better option.

$15 for 24months and $99 for the box makes it $459. That's a terrible deal.

Just like all those phone contracts, but they work, because people don't think that stuff through.

I don't know what it costs in the US, but an Xbox+Kinect bundle with 2 12 month XBL Gold cards costs about that much in The Netherlands. Obviously this plan is a bit more expensive, but not offensively so.

How would they setup the $15 monthly plan? It doesn't seem likely that places like Walmart or any other big box store could set that up through their systems.

They can and would. All the big box stores sell cellphones and plans, this would be no different. Walmart/Target/Amazon just become middle-men. They sell you the hardware and make you sign the contract then they send the contract to Microsoft.

Remember when they tried to sell low spec computers with shitty dialup using this model 10-12 years ago? It didn't work.

If they did this 2 years ago I could see the appeal. At this point it's just a kid crying because his mom and dad won't buy him a 720 while they're still making payments on the 360. Maybe they'll offer an upgrade path in 18 months. I'm sure there is some market. I just wonder how big it is.

How would they setup the $15 monthly plan? It doesn't seem likely that places like Walmart or any other big box store could set that up through their systems.

They can and would. All the big box stores sell cellphones and plans, this would be no different. Walmart/Target/Amazon just become middle-men. They sell you the hardware and make you sign the contract then they send the contract to Microsoft.

The difference between this and cell phone plans is both are either at cost or cheaper. In this case, the prices would mean that you are paying extra for XBL, and a bit less for the 360, but in the long run more than you would if you just payed for the low end 360 and yearly XBL Gold. The point of these deals is to provide a complete discount so people who normally couldn't afford something will pay something and make use of the platform to contribute more money.

@Dagbiker said:

@mnzy said:

$15 for 24months and $99 for the box makes it $459. That's a terrible deal.

Yah it is if you have the money now, but what if your 12 and all you make is 15 dollars a month.

Then save up and keep the extra like $100 dollars so you can afford games sooner. More, actually, because you can get two years of gold and a 360 for about $300, not including taxes. This is way more, just spread out.

@Anwar said:

@mnzy said:

$15 for 24months and $99 for the box makes it $459. That's a terrible deal.

Just like all those phone contracts, but they work, because people don't think that stuff through.

You don't pay more for the subsidized phone contract though, it's just a lot because they require a certain tier, but that tier isn't more expensive than normal. Here, that is totally the case. Pretty sure even monthly XBL costs about 8 bucks a month, not, ya know, twice that.

This is not a terrible deal. Yeah, it would be stupid to get in on this deal now, but realistically it's not a huge screwover. The total cost difference over two years is forty bucks. For me and I'm sure for a lot of people, that's a compelling deal - though I'm paying an extra $40 in the long run, it is MUCH easier for me to budget $15 a month and a $99 up-front cost than it is the full $300 cost for the console.

It's not about being bad at math, or even bad at finances - it's about a purchase price that a consumer is comfortable with. I see this less as a cell phone contract and more like a credit card. It's easier to put big purchases on a credit card and pay it off slower, despite the interest, than it is to pay upfront with cash. If it's a system that I know I am going to use (and were we not so close to the console cycle changeover, I would) then why not?

Anyone that says this is a bad deal doesn't understand the logistics of being an adult, maintaining a mortgage and bills and the cost of raising a child - and extra $40 over two years is less than $2 a month - and that's a much easier burden than $400+ in one fell swoop.

That's a terrible price. The next xbox could come out before that sub ends and you would be stuck paying $15 a month for a service no one uses anymore.

It's all part of Microsoft's plan: Introduce the Xbox Next at a subsidized price with a similar sort of contract, and then by buying it you "refresh" the contract to 2 years from the point of buying the new Xbox (similar to how AT&T; used to "refresh" iPhone subscriptions when upgrading from an older model).

Um... 15 dollars a month? So is this a new tier above Gold? I'm not sure about the future of Microsoft consoles. Presumably this has a lot to do with how they want to provide a premium video service/television substitute. However, I'm still not convinced of the viability of their goals here in Canada, which is less so their fault, and more the fault of the CRTC and their absurd content restrictions. So far Boxee seems like the most viable set-top box for people outside of the US, but even it's a bit iffy.

$15 for 24months and $99 for the box makes it $459. That's a terrible deal.

In accounting there's a thing called present value and future value. Basically a dollar now is worth a lot more than a dollar down the line in that you can use that dollar now (invest, purchase things, etc.). So in terms of present value, $99 and $15 add up to a lot less than $300 and $60 right now, even if down the line you end up paying more. More expensive in the long run doesn't mean it's a bad deal - you may have much more important alternate uses for that other money now but you can afford to pay piecemeal like that.

Wow look I actually applied something I learned in my courses. I guess that makes them useful.

How would they setup the $15 monthly plan? It doesn't seem likely that places like Walmart or any other big box store could set that up through their systems.

They can and would. All the big box stores sell cellphones and plans, this would be no different. Walmart/Target/Amazon just become middle-men. They sell you the hardware and make you sign the contract then they send the contract to Microsoft.

@FreakAche: you didnt even fully read it did you...... the 15 a month covers the cost of the console as well as the gold membership its not better than gold in fact the way its worded it sounds like it could have less access to things like netflix